20. Your UX Boot Camp Might Not Prepare You for Real Life

I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but the real world isn’t exactly what you learned in school.

Were you under the impression software teams would sit around waiting for the UX team to complete their research, analyze every angle, and design pixel-perfect prototypes?

Were you surprised when you found out you had a single sprint to deliver a fully baked feature, fully validated and ready to build?

Were you confused when the engineers delivered the feature but it didn’t look anything like your wires?

Were you surprised when the product team completely ignored your ideas in favor of their own?

Welcome to the wonderful, often painful world of UX design.

What you will be doing, how you will be doing it, and who you will be doing it with will vary widely depending on the team and company you end up working for.

The reality is that you’re likely picking up where someone else left off. You aren’t always able to do the things you think you should be doing.

Start to finish, If there even is a finish, is often not a linear, happy path.

Topics:
• 02:31 – Not every course is the same
• 03:08 – Beware! UX Maturity is very low across the board
• 04:04 – A lot of organizations don’t really understand how to use a UX professional
• 06:08 – You usually won’t start at the start
• 06:46 – Lots of software projects tend to take a very long time
• 07:03 – You’re often starting off with desk research
• 07:56 – You will get pushback
• 09:22 – You might not get a seat at the table
• 11:10 – You will work with difficult engineers or product teams
• 13:08 – There will be underfunded research
• 16:30 – Your designs will be rushed designs
• 20:31 – You need to thrive in a VUCA environment
• 25:30 – It’s a marathon, not a sprint

Helpful Links:
• From the classroom to the cubicle: UX in the real world | UX Mastery
• 5 things they don’t teach you in school as a product/UX designer | Bootcamp
• What you don’t learn in design school | Shopify UX
• What VUCA Really Means for You | HBR
• Volatility, uncertainty, complexity and ambiguity | Wikipedia

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